Jyuan was born in a tiny mountain village in remote Hokkaido. His birth was difficult, and he displayed several birth defects. As was the local custom, his mother brought him to the top of a nearby mountain and left him there to die. Here his story would have ended, if he had not been discovered and adopted by a band of buddhist mountain monks. He was given the last name of the head of their order, a wise and ancient Chinese priest who had traveled to Japan to spread his esoteric teachings.

Jyuan was taught a potent mixture of Chinese thought and Japanese mysticism that characterized his master's 'Kasei' philosophy. Shortly before the master's death, the order broke into two sects, the Lotus and the Jade. The Lotus wished to overthrow the government and usher in a new enlightened age. The Jade opposed this, instead choosing continued isolation. In the conflict and terrible fire that followed, Master Zhou was killed, and the Order was all but annihilated. As far as Jyuan is aware, he was one of a handful of survivors, and the only Jade sect member alive.

Jyuan Zhou was Master Zhou's best student, surpassing his peers in meditation, exorcism, medicine, and mesmerism. He was also an excellent martial artist, though his progress in Kasei-style kung-fu was handicapped by his fear of causing his opponent injury. Now he travels the roads of Japan, perpetually an outsider due to his strange looks and behavior. He is called 'Morokoshi Shugenja' by some, the 'Chinese Mountain Monk'. That he is, in fact, ethnically Japanese makes the title an irritating one.

That would've been another great direction to take the character. I don't know why I didn't use oni as character beginning point for any of these folks. When I was working up the beginnings of Manhunter, I knew I wanted a character who felt like an alien, disconnected from others. A buddhist monk seemed like a natural choice at that point, and the rest followed from there.

Dude I can't believe I missed this one I didn't even know you drew this.Great job by the way I love how you made him become something more interesting then just a martian.And just to let you know i'm still going to try and draw your chambara characters in my stlye just to see how they can turn out, if you are still ok with me doing so

This is massively creative. I have not been a very big Martian Manhunter fan (though the White Martians are cool in Morrison's JLA run). Very well thought out idea here, the mix of Chinese and Japanese really brings out the isolation of the character. Love the stave here too.